Zafar Ansari will keep working hard in the hope his luck holds on England's tour of India.

The spin-bowling all-rounder has to admit, to himself and the wider world, that when he looks around his talented team-mates he simply cannot match them for natural ability.

Instead, Cambridge University graduate Ansari's theory goes, at the age of 24 he has made a career so far out of industry and application - even when that luck he enjoys has gone against him.

It did, of course, 15 months ago when - within hours of being named in an England Test squad for the first time, to face Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates - he broke his thumb so badly that he not only missed the tour but needed two operations before he could play again the following season.

Ansari insists that misfortune must not be overstated: "I missed out on an international tour ... there are worse things that happen."

Even so, when he took another fierce blow to his non-bowling hand this time as he dropped a catch in the drawn first Test, he gulped not just in pain but brief worry about what the longer-term consequences might be.

"I'm always over-sensitive about my hands, definitely," said Ansari.

"Every time I get hit I'm kind of concerned now I've done something.

"But I think I know the difference now between a bad injury and a non-injury, having suffered quite a bad one."

Looking further back, still wary not to overstate the impact of the fracture he suffered at Old Trafford last year, he acknowledges it was a significant setback.

"Definitely ... to be here now for me is a big thing," he said.

"Missing seven months of cricket, for someone who isn't a natural ball player - who isn't a natural anything when it comes to cricket - it's something I'm really proud of, to have got back in this position."

He has returned no less a cricketer. But when he watches players like his fellow all-rounder Moeen Ali, Ansari feels he has no option but to accept his own limitations.

"I'm probably comparing myself with Moeen or people like that," he said.

"They work incredibly hard - but from the outside, they have a certain touch that maybe I don't feel like I quite have.

"This is just my perspective. Other people might say 'you're talking rubbish, you're being self-deprecating'. But it's genuine."

His solution is to redouble his efforts, and keep relying on what he sees as his good fortune.

"I would say I have to work especially hard - and I have to be lucky as well, maybe a bit luckier than other people," he said.

"Throughout my career, I've been quite lucky - so I hope that will continue."

It has thrust him into a tour in which England, talented as they are, will be exceeding general expectations if they are successful.

As Ansari prepares for the second Test in Vizag on Thursday, he is aware too that his and Moeen's presence - alongside Adil Rashid and teenage opener Haseeb Hameed - has a wider significance.

"As a collective as a group of four British Muslims ... that's really exciting and something we're proud of," he added.

"A lot of people outside the group clearly care about that and value that a lot - and that is a good thing in our society."

Ansari, citing his "very privileged background" as the Cambridge-educated son of two professors, does not feel of an aspiring class.

"I wouldn't hold myself up as a role-model - at least in that way," he said.

".I don't necessarily challenge norms in a particularly obvious way or even in a superficial way.

"So I wouldn't necessarily characterise myself as breaking down boundaries.

"But Moeen, Adil and Haseeb - all of them are doing a wonderful job representing, if they are representing, their communities."

One thing he, Moeen and Rashid do have in common on this tour is gratitude to Saqlain Mushtaq.

The former Pakistan off-spinner has been retained until the end of the third Test as England's specialist spin consultant - and he has helped Ansari by keeping his advice and encouragement simple.

"He has made it explicit that he didn't want to come in and change anything," he said.

"It's more about your approach to bowling and bowling in Test cricket. How you can maintain your composure when batsmen are coming at you, when the crowd is loud, when you're playing on TV ...?

"He brings a certain perspective to that - and also, he acts as our cheerleader to some extent.

"As someone who has been so successful to come in and say 'I think you're a good bowler and I think you can take wickets at this level', that gives you a lot of confidence."